Call unto Me, and I will answer and show you great and mighty things, which you know not.
Jeremiah 33:3

This good text, all moldy and chill with the prison in which Jeremiah lay, has a brightness and a beauty about it… We need to be commanded to attend to that very act which ought to be our greatest happiness, to meet with our God.  Art thou sick? Cry unto Me, for I am a Great Physician. Does providence trouble thee? Art thou fearful? Call unto Me! Do Thy children vex thee? Are they thankless? Call unto Me. Are thy griefs little yet painful, like pricks of thorns? Call unto Me! Is thy burden, heavy as though it would make thy back break beneath its load? Call unto Me!

We ought not to tolerate for a minute the ghastly and grievous thought that God will not answer prayer. His nature, as manifested in Christ Jesus, demands it. We misread Calvary, if we think that prayer is useless. The saint may expect to discover deeper experience and to know more of the higher spiritual life, by being much in prayer. All believers see Christ; but not all believers put their fingers into the prints of the nails, nor thrust their hand into His side. We have not all the high privilege of John to lean upon Jesus’ bosom, nor of Paul, to be caught up into the third heaven. It is prevailing prayer takes Christians to Carmel, or that bears them aloft to Pisgah. To grow in experience then, there must be much prayer.

C.H. Spurgeon (1834-1892), in Inspirational Gold, Christian Focus Publications, 2005, p.162.

We live in a day in which Christians need to exercise spiritual discernment more than ever.  Paul warned the church in Ephesus that they were to “no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” (Ephesians 4:41, ESV)  A faith that is firmly anchored in and upon the Word of God will stand strong and unmoved by the wind and waves of false teaching blowing all around us.  Our faith must be grounded in a knowledge of the Scriptures. But as Tim Challies observes in his book, The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment,

“Sadly…many Christians have separated theology from practice, knowledge of God from their practice of serving Him. Some Christians delight in their ignorance, claiming that they don’t want theology; they just want to love Jesus. These people tend to build their faith upon feelings and experiences rather than upon the truths of the Bible” (p.49). 

We must not think a childlike faith (something Jesus Christ commended as valuable) is the same thing as a childish faith, that is, one that is indifferent to or ignorant of the Word of God. (see Richard Phillips, Hebrews, Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2006, p.177.)

A dynamic relationship with Christ and a solid theology founded on the objective truths of Scripture are not mutually exclusive.  In fact, they go hand-in-hand.  Right theology without a relationship with Christ is worthless, and a relationship with Christ not founded on Scripture truth is groundless.  This is pointed out by Dr. John Piper in a message entitled, “Contend for the Faith,”

“Sometimes it is necessary to stress that Christianity is primarily a relationship with Jesus rather than a set of ideas about Jesus. The reason we do this is because no one is saved by believing a set of ideas. The devil believes most of the truths of Christianity. We need to stress that unless a person has a living trust in Jesus as Savior and Lord, all the orthodoxy in the world will not get him into heaven.

But if our stress on the personal relationship with Jesus leads us to deny that there is a set of truths essential to Christianity, we make a grave mistake. There are truths about God and Christ and man and the church and the world which are essential to the life of Christianity. If they are lost or distorted, the result will not be merely wrong ideas but misplaced trust. The inner life of faith is not independent from the doctrinal statement of faith. When doctrine goes bad, so do hearts. There is a body of doctrine which must be preserved.”

If we are to exercise discernment as Christians, we must immerse ourselves in God’s Word.  We must know Him as He has revealed Himself, not as we think Him to be, or as we would like Him to be, but as He is.  Likewise, we must see life, and His world, as He has revealed them to us in the Scriptures. 

“To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” (Isaiah 8:20, NKJV)

Today is Memorial Day.  Originally called Decoration Day, Memorial Day is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation’s service. According to a website created to help promote the return of the original intent and meaning back to Memorial Day:

“Traditional observance of Memorial day has diminished over the years. Many Americans nowadays have forgotten the meaning and traditions of Memorial Day. At many cemeteries, the graves of the fallen are increasingly ignored, neglected. Most people no longer remember the proper flag etiquette for the day. While there are towns and cities that still hold Memorial Day parades, many have not held a parade in decades. Some people think the day is for honoring any and all dead, and not just those fallen in service to our country.”

Today, take time to remember those who have given their lives in our nation’s service.

In recent months,The Shack  (William P. Young, Newbury Park, CA: Windblown Media, 2007) has stormed bookstores across the nation, climbing its way to the top of the bestseller list under the genre of “Christian fiction.”  I confess, from the very outset I had NO interest in reading the book simply due to the fact that I usually prefer titles in the non-fiction category.  But after weeks of hearing and seeing people read, talk about, recommend and tote this book around (just yesterday at the fitness center a lady on the treadmill next to mine was reading a copy as she worked out), I finally gave in and decided to see what all the fuss was about.  Even as I went to pay for the book at the check-out counter, the cashier enthusiastically volunteered that she had just finished reading it and proceeded to give her thoughts about what a “great book” it is. 

Well, today I completed a careful cover-to-cover reading of The Shack.  And while my original intent had been to write a review of the book, it quickly became evident that several excellent reviews had already been written. Rather than reinvent the wheel, therefore, I have decided to merely summarize my own thoughts about the book, followed by links to two of the most important critical reviews I have found so far.

Without a doubt, The Shack subversively undermines key doctrines of the Christian faith.  Although the book is packaged as an attractive fictional story, it clearly and extensively speaks to theological issues.  In fact, one reviewer writes, “This book has the potential to do for our generation what John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress did for his.”  This is a tall order, considering the fact that Pilgrim’s Progress is (and continues to be, in spite of the claim above) the greatest piece of theological fiction ever written. 

Errors abound in The Shack.  The doctrines of the Trinity, divine revelation, and salvation receive particular attention, at times being butchered beyond recognition.  While I’m sure this could be said of many other fictional works, the sheer immensity of The Shack ’s readership (and the claims of such readers) demand that Christians take a serious look.  The book has been described it as “life changing,” ”spiritually profound,” “theologically enlightening” and ”teaching powerful theological lessons.”  Many readers are claiming that the book has changed not only their lives, but also their understanding of God.  Consequently, Christians must responsibly evaluate it with a charitable but discerning eye.

In sum, I can’t say it better than does Tim Challies (CHALL-eez), who writes:

Focusing on…the subjects William P. Young discusses in The Shack, we’ve seen that errors abound. He presents a false view of God and one that may well be described as heretical. He downplays the importance and uniqueness of the Bible, subjugating it or making it equal to other forms of subjective revelation. He misrepresents redemption and salvation, opening the door to the possibility of salvation outside of the completed work of Jesus Christ on the cross. We are left with an unbiblical understanding of the persons and nature of God and of His work in this world.

But this is not all. The discerning reader will note as well that the author muddies the concepts of forgiveness and free will. He introduces teaching that is entirely foreign to the Bible, often stating with certainty what is merely speculative. He oversteps the bounds of Scripture while downplaying the Bible’s importance. He relies too little on Scripture and too much on his own theological imaginings. 

Two Highly Recommended Reviews of The Shack

1)  Tim Challies.  One of the best reviews of The Shack I have found is the one by Tim Challies which I quoted from above.  Challies is the author of the website, Challies Dot Com, and editor of Discerning Reader, a site dedicated to discerning reviews of books that are of interest to Christians. He is also the author of the book, The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment.  You may download Challies’ excellent review (pictured at right) in PDF format by clicking here.

2)  Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr.  Another excellent review of The Shack was recently done by Dr. Al Mohler, who serves as president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.  Recently, Dr. Mohler featured,  “A Look at The Shack” on The Albert Mohler Radio Program, where he gave an extended analysis of the book and made note of its serious, even dangerous, theological deficiencies.  Dr. Mohler states of The Shack:

• “This book includes undiluted heresy.” 
• “This book simply, by any measure, falls far short of biblical Christianity.” 
• “Regardless of intention (I can’t read the [author’s] heart), I can tell you that the effect of the book is indeed deeply subversive of the Christian faith, and I think inherently seductive as well.”

You may listen to the full audio recording of “A Look at The Shack” on The Albert Mohler Radio Program  here.

Conclusion

Now that I have carefully and thoughtfully read The Shack, I couldn’t agree more with Tim Challies’s and Al Mohler’s reviews above.  I will conclude with a final quote from Challies:

All this is not to say there is nothing of value in the book. However, it is undeniable to the reader who will look to the Bible, that there is a great deal of error within The Shack. There is too much error. That The Shack is a dangerous book should be obvious from this review. The book’s subversive undertones seek to dismantle many aspects of the faith and these are subsequently replaced with doctrine that is just plain wrong. Error abounds. I urge you, the reader, to exercise care in reading and distributing this book. The Shack may be an may be an engaging read but it is one that contains far too much error. Read it only with the utmost care and concern, critically evaluating the book against the unchanging standard of Scripture. Caveat lector!  A Latin phrase meaning,

Let the Reader Beware!

Today our church family buried one of its own:  Gloria “Jean” Cox.  Jean and her husband Bill have been faithful servants in our church for several years now.  In fact, I was touched and blessed to see Bill standing at his “post” — there at the church doors — this past Sunday, as usual, in spite of the fact that he is still grieving Jean’s passing.  Reacting to my surprise at seeing him back at his post so soon, Bill responded, “Jean would want it that way.”  What a blessing to observe such a faithful servant of God, his confidence and faith in his God undaunted by his pain.  Oh for more like him!  Shouldn’t it be that way for all true Christians?  The apostle Paul wrote, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”  With that thought in mind — “death is gain” — watch this one minute video:

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.  If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell.  I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.  But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.  Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again. — Philippians 1:21-26, ESV

And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, “Write, ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!’” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them.”  — Revelation 14:13, NASB

I have had the privilege of hearing Keith and Kristyn Getty twice: once at Clifton Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky while I was attending the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and again recently at the Church at Pinnacle Hills, where I serve on staff. The Gettys are considered to be two of God’s finest gifts to His Church today. If you haven’t heard them, let me encourage you to pick up a copy of one of their CDs. You’ll be blessed. The video below is one of my favorite songs of theirs. I can’t think of a better way to kick off your week. Enjoy!

What determines the quality of your marriage? Dave Harvey, author of When Sinners Say, “I Do” — Discovering the Power of the Gospel for Marriage, explains in this overview of chapter one: “What Really Matters in Marriage.”  Whether you’re considering marriage, are newly married, or have been married many years, I think you’ll appreciate the message in this brief clip:

How do we determine what level of importance to assign to various theological/doctrinal issues?  What doctrines are essential for all Christians? What doctrines make us Baptist? What doctrines should and should not divide us as Christians?  Without question, one of the most important and helpful articles I have ever read on this topic is, “A Call for Theological Triage and Christian Maturity,” written by Dr. R. Albert Mohler, President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. You may read this important article here.  I have made an attempt to summarize the key point from Dr. Mohler’s article as follows:

• FIRST-ORDER DOCTRINES represent the most central, fundamental, and essential truths of the Christian faith, (e.g., the Trinity, the full deity and humanity of Jesus Christ, justification by faith, the authority of Scripture, etc.) such that a denial of these doctrines amounts to nothing less than a denial of Christianity itself. Therefore, those who deny these revealed truths are, by definition, not Christians. 
• SECOND-ORDER DOCTRINES are distinguished from the first-order set by the fact that believing Christians may disagree on the second-order issues, though this disagreement will create significant boundaries between believers. These boundaries become evident when Christians organize themselves into congregations and denominational forms.  Second-order issues would include the meaning and mode of baptism, women in the pastorate, the meaning and mode of the “baptism in the Holy Spirit,” use of tongues and prophecy in corporate worship, etc.  Christians across a vast denominational range can stand together on the first-order doctrines and recognize each other as authentic Christians, while the existence of second-order disagreements prevents the closeness of fellowship we would otherwise enjoy.
• THIRD-ORDER ISSUES are doctrines over which Christians may disagree and remain in close fellowship, even within local congregations. This might include most of the debates over eschatology.  For example, Christians who affirm the bodily, historical, and victorious return of the Lord Jesus Christ may differ over the timetable and sequence of such events without rupturing the fellowship of the church.  Christians may find themselves in disagreement over any number of issues related to the interpretation of difficult texts or the understanding of matters of common disagreement. Nevertheless, standing together on issues of more urgent importance, believers are able to accept one another without compromise when third-order issues are in question.

Dr. Mohler states, “If we ever mistake a first-order doctrine for a third-order doctrine, disaster will ensue and we’ll end up abandoning the faith.  If we take third-order doctrines and make them first-order issue and say, ” Persons have to believe this to be a Christian,” then we do violence to the New Testament…”

For those who would like a short “Cliff Notes” summary from Dr. Mohler himself, you may watch him explain the process of theological triage in the following clip:

“I learned, when I was a boy, that the chief end of man was to glorify God and enjoy Him forever; but I hear now, according to the new theology, that the chief end of God is to glorify man and enjoy him forever.  Yet this is the turning of things upside down.” — Charles Haddon Spurgeon

In his powerful book, Love Your God with All Your Mind: The Role of Reason in the Life of the Soul, author J.P. Moreland speaks of the intellectually shallow, and theologically illiterate form of Christianity that is so evident in modern society today.  How did we get there?  It must be blamed in part on the emergence of an anti-intellectual mindset which has permeated American Christianity for the last several decades.  For many, this has resulted in a failure to cultivate the Christian Mind.  

How has this come about?  To answer that question we must look back to the intellectual assault against Christianity over the last two hundred fifty years or so we have seen…

• the philosophical ideas of David Hume and Immanuel Kant, which questioned the existence of God and the rationality of Christian faith,
• German higher criticism that attacked the reliability of the Bible,
• the publication of Darwin’s Origin of Species which brought into question the Genesis account of creation, etc.

How did Christians respond to these attacks?  In his book Moreland further comments that, “Instead of responding to these attacks with a vigorous intellectual counterpunch, many believers grew suspicious of intellectual issues altogether.”  This suspicion of intellectualism led many to simply withdraw from the intellectual world and its “threatening” ideas.  This had the unhappy effect of removing Christian truth from the table of ideas in American culture.  

Moreland laments that this anti-intellectual mindset has also led to the modern church’s neglect of what he believes “may be the most critical component of the believer’s sanctification: the cultivation and development of the Christian Mind.”  As a result, Christians have in large part become “overly indidualistic, infantile, and narcissistic,” and this mindset is then reflected in what we read and what we don’t read:

What such persons WILL read.  What will that person read, if he or she reads at all?  Such a person will read Christian self-help books that are filled with self-serving content, many slogans, simplistic moralizing, a lot of stories and pictures, and inadequate diagnosis of issues that place no demand on the reader.  Books about Christian celebrities will be selected to allow the reader to live vicariously through the celebrity. 

(What sorts of books top the Christian best-sellers lists?  Several intellectually shallow and theologically wrong-headed titles immediately come to mind…)

What such persons WON’T read.  What will not be read are books that equip people to engage in “destroying speculations…raised up against the knowledge of God” (2 Corinthians 10:5, NASB), develop a well-reasoned, theological understanding of the Christian religion, and fill their role in the broader kingdom of God for the common good and the cause of Christ. 

Eventually a church without readers or readers with the tastes just listed will become a marginalized, easily led group of Christians impotent to stand against the powerful forces of secularism that threaten to bury Christian ideas under a veneer of soulless pluralism and misguided scientism.  In such a context, the church will be tempted to measure her success largely in terms of numbers — numbers achieved by cultural accomodation to empty selves.  In this way, as Os Guinness has reminded us, the church will become her own grave-digger; her means of short-term “success” will turn out to be the very thing that marginalizes her in the long run.  (pp. 93-94)

Powerful words, but by all appearances Moreland seems to be right on the money.  The church in general, from pulpit to pew, has become theologically illiterate, minimizing the importance of sound biblical theology and doctrine while exalting man-centered substitutes through a “felt needs” approach.

How should we decide what to read?  Puritan Richard Baxter (1615-1691) offers the following…

ADVICE ON READING

“Make careful choice of the books which you read: let the holy scriptures ever have the pre-eminence, and, next to them, those solid, lively, heavenly treatises which best expound and apply the scriptures, and next, credible histories, especially of the Church…  but take heed of false teachers who would corrupt your understandings.”

1)  As there is a more excellent appearance of the Spirit of God in the holy scripture, than in any other book whatever, so it has more power and fitness to convey the Spirit, and make us spiritual, by imprinting itself upon our hearts. As there is more of God in it, so it will acquaint us more with God, and bring us nearer Him, and make the reader more reverent, serious and divine. Let scripture be first and most in your hearts and hands and other books be used as subservient to it. The endeavours of the devil and papists to keep it from you, doth shew that it is most necessary and desirable to you.

2)  The writings of divines are nothing else but a preaching of the gospel to the eye, as the voice preaches it to the ear. Vocal preaching has the pre-eminence in moving the affections, and being diversified according to the state of the congregation which attend it: this way the milk comes warmest from the breast. But books have the advantage in many other respects: you may read an able preacher when you have but a average one to hear. Every congregation cannot hear the most judicious or powerful preachers: but every single person may read the books of the most powerful and judicious; preachers may be silenced or banished, when books may be at hand: books may be kept at a smaller charge than preachers: we may choose books which treat of that, very subject which we desire to hear of; but we cannot choose what subject the preacher shall treat of. Books we may have at hand every day. and hour; when we can have sermons but seldom, and at set times. If sermons be forgotten, they are gone; but a book we may read over and over, till we remember it: and if we forget it, may again peruse it at our pleasure, or at our leisure. So that good books are a very great mercy to the world: the Holy Ghost chose the way of writing, to preserve His doctrine and laws to the ‘Church, as knowing how easy and sure a way it is of keeping it safe to all generations, in comparison of mere verbal traditions.

3)  You have need of a judicious teacher at hand, to direct you what books to use or to refuse: for among good books there are some very good that are sound and lively; and some good, but mediocre, and weak and somewhat dull; and some are very good in part, but have mixtures of error, or else of incautious, injudicious expressions, fitter to puzzle than edify the weak.

BAXTER’S ADVICE ON ASSESSING THE VALUE OF A BOOK:

While reading ask yourself:

1. Could I spend this time no better?

2. Are there better books that would edify me more?

3. Are the lovers of such a book as this the greatest lovers of the Book of God and of a holy life?

4. Does this book increase my love to the Word of God, kill my sin, and prepare me for the life to come?

Happy reading!

What a day we had on Sunday!  First, the series I’m teaching at 9:15, Faith Under Fire: Answering the Toughest Objections to Christian Faith, addressed the question: “What About Those Who Never Hear the Gospel?”  This is a very important question in our post-Christian world, where truth is relativized, and the falsehoods of universalism, pluralism, and inclusivism have crept into the church — even in Protestant circles!  No wonder Dr. Russell Moore of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary calls it, “one of the most perilous theological fault-lines in contemporary evangelicalism.”  It was very eye-opening to see just how much inclusivistic ideas have insidiously crept into Christian belief today…

In the worship service, Pastor Floyd preached a powerful message on the CALL of the Cross-Centered Life.  We are ALL called to change the world in which we live.  In God’s divine providence, each and every Christian has been placed where he or she is, in order that they might impact their world with the life-changing power of Christ.  If only each and every Christian would internalize this, and live it out every day!  We must — we are CALLED — to engage the culture in which we live!  Why do so many choose NOT to? 

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to waste my life!  How can we avoid wasting our life?  By investing it in something of infinite value.  In Mark 8:34-38, Jesus said,

“If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?  For what can a man give in return for his soul?  For whoever is ashamed of Me and of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

In other words, true gain comes through losing your life for Christ.  If you want to do this, let me encourage you to invest the next three-and-a-half minutes listening as Randy Alcorn elaborates this important principle:

 

Recently I came across this video of John MacArthur and Kirk Cameron discussing how salvation is impossible in every sense outside of the sovereign grace and love of Jesus Christ.  It is a powerful story.  I think you’ll find it worthwhile and uplifting.  And if you don’t know Christ, it could even change your life!